A COURSE IN MIRACLESSTUDY GROUPWITH RAJ

THIS IS A ROUGH TRANSCRIPT.
THIS COPY IS NOT IN ITS FINAL FORM
AND WILL BE UPDATED

Okay, before we begin, let’s take a few moments to be quiet together.

[Quiet time]

Good evening. And welcome to everyone who’s joining us on the Internet.

Well, it’s been a week since Easter, plenty of time for everyone to have given attention to going to the Father so that you can be with your brother in a new way.

The message of Christmas, Easter, and the Resurrection is that you are the salvation of the world. It sounds important, it sounds overwhelming, but it is the simple message of A Course In Miracles. The practice of the holy instant amounts to something utterly simple. It amounts to becoming still, silencing the thinking and the busyness of the mind and, in the quietness, being attentive, inquisitive, bringing an alive or living attention to the state of being conscious.

And when that happens, when one engages in that, there is always one result, and that is inspiration, revelation, the infilling of Truth, the Father’s perspective revealing something very important, revealing as an experience to you that you are loved in an infinite way that causes you to recognize that you are divine because that is the only thing that would be worthy of such love.

And so, the Father’s love uncovers to you your holiness. When you let it in, when you let it sink in, and when you don’t resist it, you find that it causes you to see your brothers, your sisters, and the world differently, through the Father’s eyes, which causes you to behave toward your brothers and sisters and the world quite differently. At the bottom line, with love— not with criticism, not with judgment, not with fear, not with hate —but with love.

Now, we talked about the practice of the two-step, the act of joining, the act of yielding to the Father, yielding to the Holy Spirit. This is what is called coming Home. It’s retracing your steps, so to speak, back through the processes and the imaginations and the determinations and judgments that caused you to come to the conclusions about yourself and the world that were quite independent from Reality.

And what I want to point out is, that as you experience practicing the holy instant, as you experience Guidance, as you experience being loved and become stronger in your faith, and you feel that you are making headway, and your life is beginning to transform, something happens that you are not expecting. And that something is, that as you get very close to, shall I say, the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven, the threshold wherein you truly let your divine Function infill you and replace all that you thought you were, something happens: you arrive at a point, you arrive at the undoing of the first step away from Home.

And that first step away from Home, if I may put it this way, is very much like the first inhale of a cigarette, or the first inhale of marijuana, or the first use of a drug. There is a hit, an unexpected hit that is perceived to be incredible. And I will tell you that the first hit of independence seemed incredible. And, when one arrives at the point of having to walk through that to get to the other side, to arrive fully back Home, one finds it very difficult because it is so attractive.

Now, do not be discouraged because you will find the courage and the stamina to follow through as long as you continue to choose to listen for the Father’s Voice, to listen for the Voice for Truth, which we are calling the Holy Spirit, which is really your divinity which has been held in trust while you have, as I’ve put it, dallied with the ego—the ego perspective.

Now, at times, it is not easy in moving over this threshold because what happens when you arrive at a point where your ego sense of yourself sees itself as having to give itself up? It’s like extinction. And like the saying goes, “Extinction is forever.” And I will tell you—and you know—that when you arrive at that threshold, you will do everything to avoid it. And how do you do it? The way you do it is by asserting self-importance. You know, that’s the last thing you are going to give up on the way Home—self-importance. It’s called egotism, but you don’t feel egotistical; you feel the need to be important. And you feel that you have been able to accomplish a certain amount of importance through your own personal private effort. And so, you seem to think that it’s possible to be important on your own, when you’re not.

Now, how do you express self-importance? . . by acting aggressively, independently, overbearing with everyone. It’s called defense. You defend yourself. And you defend yourself by pretending to be better than everyone else and putting them in their place and requiring of them in one way or another to deal with you in a way that you feel is respectful. And you tell everyone what respect is in terms of them dealing with you.

So, the assertion of independence, the assertion of self-importance becomes a very aggressive part of your experience in your dealing with your world and those in your world. This is what happens at the threshold of Awakening. It’s important to understand this.

Now, “I go before you to prepare a place for you.”¹ That’s the exact opposite of what you attempt to bring into play at the threshold of Awakening. And that is what your habit gets in the way of. You go to the Father, you might say, instead of going to your brother to learn what the truth is. You prepare a place for what? . . your brother. And this is why you’re the salvation of the world—because you don’t do it for yourself. It’s very simple. When you save your brother, you save yourself. But when you are engaged in saving yourself, you’re actually putting one foot into the grave. In other words, independence acted out puts you in the experience of time, and you lose the experience of eternity, which is available to you when your brother comes before you in your mind.

I went to prepare a place for you. I did not go to prepare a place for me and then go back for you. No. I went to prepare a place for you. You were the focal point, you were the reason. Now, obviously, if saving your brother saves you, then you are in need of your brother because you’re lost without your brother. And in fact, you’re experiencing being lost in this false experience of a span of time between birth and death, as though birth is a possibility and death is a possibility in the only context there is, which is eternality.

You need each other. And you need to feel the need. Because if you don’t feel the need, there’s no compassion, there’s no connection, there’s no holy reason for relating to each other. The only reason for relating to each other is one of defense and self-protection.

Now, why am I bringing this up? I’m bringing it up certainly in the context of Easter and the Resurrection and the Ascension and its meaning. And I’m bringing it up because you’re observing in the world today the exhibition of acts of self-defense, acts of self-importance. You’re watching the events which are, for lack of better words, telling you of the end times, except that the end times are a joyful thing. Because the end times are the times of moving across the threshold, out of illusion, back into the conscious experience of Reality, union with God because you are letting God’s Mind be yours in your every action and relationship during your day.

Independence is an act of making boundaries. Independence is in effect the building of a wall that says, “Everything inside this wall is me and mine. And everything outside this wall is not me. It’s someone else. It’s something else. It’s something different. It’s something I don’t have to relate to. And it’s something that must relate to me according to rules that I establish. Because it’s all foreign . . . it’s all foreign. And so, you hold your world as a material world to your sight, and you hold your fellowman in the realm of enemy, in the realm of something foreign to you.

This is what you are watching happening. Not just in the United States but around your globe. The attempt is being made to segregate, to undo the unity which was developing, to build walls and to treat each other as foreign to each other. It is a mean-spirited attitude. There is no love in it. And in this act, it is being forgotten that you all need each other. At least, it’s being forgotten by those who are in charge because it doesn’t suite or meet the criteria of success that they have determined is important.

Now, what is important is for everyone, you, Paul, Susan, everyone in the world who is not governing, who is not in the position of power to remember that, indeed, you all need each other. And amongst yourselves you know you need each other, and amongst yourselves you know what is important. But the problem is that you’re not governing. The problem is that you’re sitting around wondering what you can do in the face of those who are in power, who have forgotten to be in touch with what the human needs are. And you know what? . . at the bottom line, the human needs are the divine needs that haven’t been forgotten . . . completely. And every single individual knows that decency and respect and consideration and love are deserved, flat out, no matter what, just because. [Big sigh]

Those who see themselves as being governed need to take the government back by putting their mouth where their Wisdom is, by not letting those who have forgotten divine meaning, to give them words that reflect the truth in the face of what they are presenting, which is undermining peoples trust and faith and frightening them. The governed are becoming uneasy, frightened because they have forgotten they have the power; they have forgotten that they are who the government is supposed to give voice to.

I’m telling the Truth because I go to the Father, and I claim no other Presence or Mind than the Father’s, and I express that to you. It is your Function to go to the Father and express what the Father reveals in spite of the fact that those in power seem unwilling to hear it.

It’s very important for you to realize how much you need each other and then help each other, stand up and voice your unwillingness to support the building or establishment of walls and separation and the definition of foreigner being applied to anyone different from you. It’s time to speak up so that there’s another voice heard . . . where? . . . in the land, in the world. Thy will be done as in earth . . . as in Heaven so on earth. Thy will be done.

It’s so important to engage in the practice of the holy instant because, in the silencing of thoughts, you are silencing what you have heard others say, you are silencing in your mind what you’ve heard on the television or in the news media or even in the fake news. [Chuckles] You are silencing all of that. You’re stepping into the vestibule, so to speak, and bringing your attention beyond or outside of all of that distracting busyness of the mind so that the actual Reality of things can be revealed to you and lift you up in your Mind so that you can see clearly and have Wisdom to engage your mouth with and then be unafraid to say it and to say it out loud(,) and to march, if necessary, or to call those who represent you and tell them what you want them to say.

You are the salvation of the world because you have a mouth, you have a mind, I’m going to say, which is capable of being filled with the Thoughts or Ideas of God which, when embraced, will cause the shift to occur.

Now, since last week, since Easter, Paul and I had a conversation. And Paul was having trouble giving his attention to me all the time. And he is still practicing doing that. And I want to share with you part of what I said to him.

I said, “We’re not talking about deferring to me, we’re talking about deferring to us. We’re not talking about abandoning Paul, we’re talking about abandoning privacy. We’re talking about invalidating ‘I’ and restoring ‘us’ as the conscious experience of Being . . . of Be-ing. Not just a conscious experience of an hour during a Study Group or an afternoon Gathering or a private conversation with Raj.”

Well, after I said that, Paul got distracted with some thoughts about something in real life that needed to be taken care of and began to wonder how he was going to take care of it. And then he realized that he had gotten distracted and came back.

He said to me, “My attention went to the unfinished business of such-and-such and what I need to do to resolve it.” And I said to him, “Yes, but you caught it. You recognized the move to independence. The point is, and you can see this, you withdrew from me. It was the equivalent of being in a conversation with someone whose eyes glaze over as he moves off into a reverie of thought, no longer relating to you, unconscious of your relationship and the world in which it’s occurring. It causes you [chuckling] to want to shake his shoulder and snap him back into the world.”

I said, “Independence is a private isolated state of mind which is oblivious to everything but itself. In that state, you are unaware of me, of God, and of the Kingdom of Heaven—which you are still in, right here with me—blinded by a reverie and a preoccupation with selfhood, righteousness, accomplishment, and success in your own independent right. You are a holy Son of God distracted by thoughts instead of being grounded in the Ideas in the Mind of God which constitute Creation, and which it is your Function to experience and confirm by being conscious of them. Being conscious of them means never being alone, never thinking. It is time to abandon the practice of thinking in favor of being the presence of attention. That is the Function of consciousness. That is the holy instant in action.”

Now, this is true of everyone, not just Paul. Everyone has the capability, the capacity to engage in the holy instant. Everyone can become still. It doesn’t take training, it doesn’t take a degree, it doesn’t take a special talent. Everyone can shut up. Everyone can set aside everything for a short period of time and become still and genuinely and earnestly ask for help.

Asking for help happens frequently in the middle of disasters or trials or tribulations that are significant. And when, in humility, one actually does stop trying to take charge himself and says, “Father, help me,” you know what? . . it’s the equivalent to saying “Yes” to God. Being open. And help is given. Restoration occurs.

Now, it’s everyone’s need to be very alert, to notice when isolation, wall-building, judgment of foreignness to you begins to take form in your mind, which causes you then to assert control over and against that which is foreign to you. It’s important for you to notice when this is happening so you can stop and become still, give your attention to the Father or the Holy Spirit or me and ask for help and then continue to shut up with full attention . . . full humble attention.

You are not going to learn how to be more skillfully independent. You are going to learn how to be in a way that embraces—in the nature of Love—everything, so that you become a benign presence, a safe haven for those who are still afraid. Unity, natural cohesiveness, spontaneous cooperation globally is the norm to be reached for, to hold out for, to affirm as the only acceptable choice.

The Voice for Truth says “No” to that which is not true, because it knows what is True . . . because it has said “Yes” to what is True. Your opportunity and task is to put yourself in the place where the “Yes” to what is True is felt by you clearly enough to act upon. And when you act upon it, your acts will be recognizable as “Brotherly Love,” and the effect will be unifying. But none of it will happen if no one gives voice to the Voice for Truth, if no one expresses what the Father reveals when you desire to know the Truth.

Now, I’m going to read from page 234 in the Sparkly book. It’s Chapter 10—God and the Ego. And it’s the 2nd paragraph in the section entitled:

PROJECTION VERSUS EXTENSION²

My brother, you are part of God and part of me. When you have at last looked at the ego’s foundation without shrinking, you will also have looked upon OURS.

What does that mean? It means that in order for you to look at the ego’s foundation without shrinking, you will have joined with me or the Holy Spirit to recognize the Truth. You will have looked upon our foundation, and that will allow you to look at the ego’s foundation without shrinking.

I come to you from our Father . . .

I go unto the Father to prepare a place for you, just like it is your task to go to the Father to prepare a place for your brothers.

I come to you from our Father to offer you . . .

. . . what? . .

. . . everything again.

All that you have lost sight of when you gave preference to your own definitions applied to Creation, different from the Fathers.

I come to you from our Father to offer you everything again. Do not refuse it in order to keep a dark cornerstone hidden, . .

. . . in order to keep a dark cornerstone hidden, for ITS protection will not save you. I GIVE you the lamp and I will go WITH you.

You give your brother the lamp as well and go with him. That means be involved in the name of Brotherhood and in acts of Brotherhood. And let your acts become the governing factors in spite of the misguided governments that are attempting to control everything. I will tell you, there are more of you who are in touch with what means something than there are those who are only in touch with the almighty dollar as the bottom line.

You will not take this journey alone. I will lead you to your true Father, Who hath need of you, as I have.

That’s what you need to be feeling toward your Brother. You feel toward him . . .

. . . You will not take this journey alone. I will lead you to your true Father, Who hath need of you, as I have.

You will lead him to the Father by virtue of giving voice to the Father’s Voice because you have been willing to no longer claim and practice a so-called voice of your own.

What does it mean that the “Father, Who hath need of you, as I have”? Well, it’s very simple. You are the Father’s Offspring. You are the Father’s Expression, and the Father needs for you to Know it. The Father needs for you to not be ignorant of it because you have been sidetracked by that initial draw on a cigarette or that first use of a psychedelic drug. You see?

The Father hath need for what He is—to be Whole—because it’s impossible for it to be otherwise. And that means that those who think it is otherwise need to experience the revelation of what is True so they can abandon their theories and concepts and definitions. You see? The Father hath need to be Sane, integrated because He is.

Will you not answer the call of love with joy?

The Easter message is to recognize the call of Love, which is for you to go to the Father and to learn of the Father and to let the Father infill you so that what you find yourself expressing is what the Father is guiding you to express as part of His Movement of Creation.

Of course, to the ego this looks like extinction. Well, that which never existed cannot become extinct, but everyone believes that their independent selfhood is quite actual. And God’s message is: “It’s not. You have a real Mind; it is Mine. I have withheld nothing from you of what I Am. It’s your Birthright to be experiencing It. And my Love will provide you with the ongoing means of discovering It. And in your discovering It, you will be the means by which your Brother is supported in discovering It.

Dropping down a paragraph.

To be alone is to be separated from infinity, but how can these be if infinity has no end? No-one can be BEYOND the limitless because what has no limits must be everywhere. There are no beginnings and no endings in God, Whose universe is Himself.

There are no walls; there is no inside and outside. Be willing to stand up and give Voice to the Truth that insides and outsides, us and them, those who naturally belong and others called foreigners, these are concepts that are invalid and must stop being expressed, embraced and acted upon.

Can you exclude yourself from the universe, or from God Who IS the universe?

No. You can’t hold your Brother separate. And your Brother, even if he thinks he can hold himself separate, cannot actually be separate from you. And so, you go to the Father, and in and as the Father’s Presence, embrace your brother until his suffering has stopped. And lift your voice up and do what it takes, which you will be guided to do by the Wisdom in you to cause the current attempts to divide the world up and to establish foreignness to stop. Be the voice which withholds the approval and be the salvation of the world.

“Wow, well, you know, I thought, you know, Jesus was crucified and resurrected and then he ascended and then he’s going to come again, and we’ll all be taken up.” Well, yeah, you didn’t think you would have anything to do with it. But the wonderful news is that you do have something to do with it. And the means to do something about it is given to you.

And so, don’t hold a grudge. Don’t withhold your willingness because you’re having to do something you didn’t expect. Until you let go of the distractions which you employ that keep you from seeing and recognizing your divinity, your brother’s divinity, and the Kingdom of Heaven that you’re right in the middle of. Until then, you have something to do because your ignorance will blind you, and you will not step out of the realm of mortality into the actuality of Eternality that you’re in the middle of, part of, and governed by actually right now.

It’s time to say “Yes” to God. That’s the real definition of prayer. And when you say “Yes” to God, and God fills you up, don’t keep it a secret. Share it with your brother. When you save your brother, you save yourself. That’s another way of saying, “What you give, you get to keep.”

God so loved the world that He gave His Son, begotten only of Him, to every other Son and Daughter, begotten only of Him. And I so loved the world that I expressed the Father’s Love, and continue to, and invite you to join me because it is your Birthright, it is your Inheritance, it is your Function, and it is what will precipitate the Movement over the threshold for you and your brothers and sisters.

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You are needed to use your True Identity within The Kingdom of God, possibly a Kingdom that you may not yet realize is concurrently present everywhere, as in here on earth. You will not even begin to realize that that God is a significant part of Who and What you were created (begotten) to be unless you continue to be prayful with God and listen, receive within awareness answers to your prayers and to act in concert with those answers building up an unwaivering faith. It is a matter of your souls development and your brothers that you realize daily all your thoughts, secret or not have been extended to God andnthe witnesses of The Kingdom of Heaven and those thoughts do become set within an illusion of reality for you to receive and learn from while being this human being that you presently are aware of being. The truths you find will reign true steadfastly in your daily reality while the false keep changing and eventually disappear when brought before love and held prior to love’s working within a state of forgiveness and grace.